Kim vs. The World!

Mars and I arrived in Noosa 2 days ago after departing Adelaide... thanks to Glen, Fish Sticks and Ant for showing us a good time! We are now currently crashing on Wood's friend Nathan's couch. We spent all day yesterday wandering around town looking for a place to live and jobs. After one day of marginally hard work (i.e. getting up before noon) we decided to have a relaxing day today... We woke up early-ish and headed to the beach to get another surfing lesson. (note - it was beautiful and 31 degrees here! and humid as hell...) This time I got a lesson from Josh - my first lesson from an Aussie! For the first hour and a half, I spent the entire time trying to paddle out and getting absolutely slammed by huge waves. After that effort, we moved down the beach where the waves were smaller and I stood up on the board!! I dedicate my first stand up to Sneaks... hope she was watching. After that, I spent the next few hours (with Josh helping me by pushing my board because my feeble...

I sit in Australia, 5000km from home, heartbroken. On Feb 9th, my beautiful kitten Sneaky had to be put to sleep due to complications of old age (liver failure)... just a few days shy of her Sweet Sixteen birthday. I just found out yesterday. Thanks to my mom and Dave for taking care of her and me. She was an amazing animal, and always feisty despite her tiny size. For those of you close to me, you know that I am a disaster, as I loved that cat more than anyone should probably love an animal. I am comforted by the thought that both my mom and Dave were with her at the end. I miss her so much and am incredibly sad. To everyone that has sent me emails over the past few weeks, I apologize for not giving you a more prompt response. I have been on a road trip, which I will post about later when I'm not feeling so horrible. Know that I read them all and love hearing from you. Tomorrow Mars and I are flying into Noosa to begin looking for a place to live, a job, and a surf board. So no m...

After a solid night of partying last night (we were celebrating Ant's last Saturday night in Oz before he moves to England ) we headed out on a 20 minute drive to the Barossa Valley, one of Australia's best known wine regions. This area is becoming famous for sparkling red wines... they are served chilled and go excellently with an Aussie BBQ. The first winery we stopped at let us sample 8 wines! We bought a few bottles, including a bottle of "Pink Mink" sparkling wine, which Ant promptly popped open and drank in the car as we went around to the other wineries! (It's legal to have open alcohol in the cars here!) We were all taking swigs from the bottle... so classy! We had a really good lunch at the Jacob's Creek winery, then went home, watched some cricket and within 10 minu tes we were all asleep. Wine before noon + Champagne in car + Good lunch + Nap = Great day!

Spent the last 3 days on Kangaroo Island, the "Galapagos of Australia". It definitely delivers what it promises.... Kangaroos everywhere! The first day we arrived we saw tons of wild kangaroos native only to the island hopping around everywhere. They are so hilarious to watch! Mars and I spent a good hour following them around trying to get pics and videos of them.... more on that later. When we arrived on the island we went straight to a gorgeous beach where the boys taught me how to kick an Aussie Rules football barefoot. I thought my big toe was going to fall off, but my technique has improved a bit! Next a few of us got to take out some ATVs. The trails were awesome with kangaroos just hanging out as we drove by. I was about 3 seconds away from running over this British grandma who was on our tour... she decided she was going to be adventurous and try the ATV, then drove it (she had to be the first one in the line) like she was taking it out for a freaking Sunday afternoo...

Woke up at 10:00am this morning to watch the Superbowl! Watching it in the morning with Aussie commentators was STRANGE! Good thing I didn't bet that spread (tough luck, Cote!). I called the boys at half time and it was funny to talk to them while they watched the game at night... even funnier was that Dent woke up at 5am to watch the Australian Open final, which we watched the night before!! Glen, Ant, and Mars did an excellent job of making me feel like it was Sunday night... we closed the blinds, made nachos, and drank beer before noon! Good 'old Guidebook Kim is looking into a 3 day Kangaroo Island tour... we will hopefully be leaving for 3 days on Wednesday to check it out, so please don't assume I've injured myself if I don't post for the next few days!